Germany and Political Union in Europe: Nothing moves without France

Abstract

This paper attempts to understand why after two decades proposing the creation of a political union to make European monetary union (EMU) sustainable, Germany has not utilised the ‘window’ offered by the Eurozone crisis to pursue more vigorously this goal. Using the conceptual devices of the Chartalist understanding of money and hegemony, three possible explanations are explored. 1) Germany is slowly becoming a ‘normal’ European power and has started to favour the intergovernmental to the community method. 2) The German public has lost its enthusiasm for European integration, especially after realising how the proposed banking union has brought the spectrum of a ‘transfer union’ closer. 3) Germany remains a reluctant hegemon and once it has seen that France is still not ready for political union it has refrained from actively promoting this ideal. The conclusion of the paper is that the first two explanations have some merits, but that the third one continues to be the most convincing. The zeal by which the German political elites, supported by their public opinion, have pushed through the Spitzenkandidaten logic in the 2014 European elections confirms that Berlin is still determined to build a more federal Europe. The question is rather whether Paris is ready to participate in this endeavour.